I'm Always Here
by Camilla.33
Summary: Clarissa Avery is a pureblood and Draco Malfoy's childhood friend and fiancée (as arranged by their parents). These are a few shared moments as she tries to help Draco through their 6th year at Hogwarts. Draco x OC ** This is my first time attempting something like this. Please no flames!


**Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter series or any of its characters.**

A.N.: This is my first attempt at a story like this, so please no flames. Also, I'm really sorry if Draco is OOC. I wanted to show a different side of him without losing his character and I'm not too sure it worked xD

Enjoy!

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**1. The train**

Clarissa wove her way through the large crowd gathered on platform 9 3/4, barely grazing a soul as she made her way to the train. She climbed into the first class car reserved for the Slytherins and was surprised to find she was not the first on the train as she normally was.

In a booth two seats down from the far door sat Draco Malfoy looking for all the world like a brooding king. She strode easily toward him, stopping only briefly to throw her carry-on bag into the overhead compartment. He looked up at her when she did, looking away sharply when her eyes dropped and met his. She wondered briefly if he would ask her to sit somewhere else but second later he rose, one hand on her waist to guide her out of his path as he moved to allow her the window seat.

She settled into the corner of the booth as he retook his place, this time angled slightly toward her. She took one of his hands, pulling it from where it had been resting beneath his chin in favor of setting it beneath hers on the table. His eyebrows rose in question and she shrugged.

"You look like you're plotting. Not what I call subtle."

He sighed quietly, his eyes blinking shut momentarily. She gave him a gentle, half smile and leaned against his side. He pressed back against her for a moment before the two shifted away from each other.

Around them, people began pilling into the car. Pansy and Blaise found the seat across from theirs quickly. Blaise was quick to start a conversation, filling their small space with meaningless words. Her eyes flickering from Draco's face to their hands resting on the table. For a moment, the faintest flicker of a forgotten pain flashed through her eyes before being snuffed out. Clarissa suppressed a grimace, the feeling not at all unfamiliar to her.

She made as though to pull her hand away, but found her companion's grip firm against her own as he turned his hand over to tangle with hers. Resigned, she sat back against the emerald cushioning behind her. Eventually, the world around her faded to a haze of semi-registered noise as she dozed, leaning tentatively against the window.

Clarissa woke several hours later, the sudden absence of Draco's hand over hers a chill startling enough to rouse her. Confused, she found opening her eyes to make little difference as the car itself had been plunged into blackness. She could hear Blaise and Draco loudly stomping around demanding answers, followed quickly by Pansy's reassurance. Seconds later Blaise was already back in his seat, Draco following suit, but hesitating on whether or not to sit back down.

Clary reached out for him, urging him gently to sit back down as her fingers grazed his. He flinched away from her and she sat back immediately. Noticing the almost satisfied look on Pansy's face, she realized she had not hidden the hurt in her eyes quickly enough. She did not have long to think on it though, as Draco sank into the seat beside her quickly, dropping into it in a motion as fluid as water.

He sat closer to her than would be considered normal, elbow brushing against her own and his whole thigh lined up perfectly with hers. It seemed to her, almost an apology for his reaction. He was on edge, they both knew. He was practically snarling, angrily commenting on charms class and his planned absence next year.

Annoyed, and slightly worried, Clary cast a hasty look around. She was well aware of his situation, having been told by him that summer on one of their evenings together. She was also aware of how blatantly he was revealing something they both knew should have been a secret. A flash of movement above her caught her eye and she watched startled, as her bag shifted as though nudged. Suddenly uneasy, she tapped Draco's knee with her own. He caught on immediately, following her eyes to the grate above them and cut his tirade short with a dismissive comment.

When the train pulled to a halt at Hogwarts, Draco stayed seated, dismissing Pansy and Blaise without so much as a second glance.

"You go on ahead, there's something I want to check."

When the majority of the train had stood to leave, and only a handful of students remained milling in the train car, he stood to allow Clarissa to stand. She took her bag down from the grate and was turning to leave when a hand on her elbow stopped her. She turned back to Draco, who stood only a few inches from her, inclining her head in question.

"Wait for me on the platform, Clary?"

She nodded mutely at his grave face. Descending from the train with the last of her house, she found the platform nearly deserted. The other students around her were quick to leave, and though she wished to follow them she stood on the platform quietly even as the blinds drew down over each window of the Slytherin car.

She watched the windows with a rising feeling of discomfort. They were still, the blank cloth of the blinds offering not even the faintest flicker of shadows. She was beginning to consider climbing back onto the train when the door rattled open and Draco stepped out looking thoroughly peeved. His eyes swept the platform, at once paranoid and searching. His face softened slightly when he turned to her, striding over confidently.

He reached her quickly, throwing an arm over her shoulder in a way that would have seemed possessive to anyone observing them. But Clary found, in the way he drew her close to his side, only the echoes of the boy he used to be, clinging to her as they walked the steps to his parent's room after breaking a most valuable vase. She felt, with a rising terror, like she was walking him to his execution platform.

**2. The Astronomy Tower**

The night after the first Quidditch game found the castle filled with the sounds of the most unbridled joy and the most crushing sadness. Far from Gryffindor tower, the inhabitants of the school could still hear the raucous laughter and cheering. In stark contrast, anyone unfortunate enough to approach the dungeons was liable to be hit by a sudden cold chill. The fainted whispers seeped up through to the lower levels as a warning to others.

Clarissa however refused to endure the crushing weight of her house's sulking and escaped. As she was turning away, the door clicking shut quietly behind her, a silhouette retreating down the hall caught her eye. A flash of silvery hair and a dark suit were her last glimpse of him as Draco turned the corner. Curious, she turned to jog after him, his long legs carrying him father, faster.

She did not catch up to him until they reached the bottom of the astronomy tower, where he paused to swing the door open and step inside. Frowning, she grabbed the edge of the door as it swung shut behind him, slipping in before it closed.

The tower was dark, Draco having neglected to light any form of illumination. She shuffled as quietly as she could through the musty tower. In the half-light filtering down from the moon outside, she could vaguely make out the shapes of old astronomy instruments lying like old corpses all around her. Half blind, she felt around and eventually found the stairs leading to the upper floors.

She found him on the top-most level, leaning against the banister and looking out over the black lake that stretched like mirror out into the horizon. As she rose onto the platform of the tower, the wood beneath her feet let out a creak like an old woman's sigh. Draco whirled, his pale hair flashing where it caught the light of the moon. He was quick to school his features into one of annoyance, but Clary still caught the faintest flicker of panic as it was wiped from his expression.

"Clarissa, what're you doing up here?"

She inched closer, moving around the giant metal structure at the very center of the wooden platform. The wind blew through her as it came through the tower, chilling her as it drove straight through her clothes. She felt it pushing back against her progress, urging her out and away from the tower and him.

"I saw you leave... I-"

"So you followed me?"

Clarissa frowned, her eyebrows pulling down and together as his hostility hit her full force. She pushed her hair back from her face in frustration, the short dark strands falling back moments later. Dark eyes watched him, flickering like a candle flame between hurt and anger.

"Yes. I followed you. I worry about you Draco. You can't-"

"Can't what? Do this alone? I was chosen for this! This is my moment! I don't need your help!"

She was at his side now, standing almost toe-to-toe with him. He stood his ground, towering over her smaller form like an obsidian pillar. Her eyes level with his shoulders, she could see them shaking beneath the smooth, silky fabric of his suit. She shook her head gently and rested her forehead against his shoulder.

"You're scared, Draco. Even if you won't admit it, I see it. Let me, at least, be here for you."

One of his hands closed around her elbow, long fingers wrapping tightly around the joint and wrinkling the fabric of her emerald shirt. She thought for one wild moment that he would shove her aside, throw her to the ground and spit fire on her accusations. Instead she found his other arm wrapping around her shoulder as his grip loosened and he relaxed into a gentle hold. Clarissa relaxed in his grip, finding herself oddly soothed by the warmth she had been missing since the end of their summer together.

"I have to do this. I have to."

He pressed his face lightly against the crook of her neck, his nose ghosting against her collarbone. She stood there quietly, arms loosely wrapped around his waist as he attempted to convince her, or himself, of the importance of his mission. Both his arms were now around her shoulders and he stood, slightly hunched over, with his face hidden in her hair. Eventually, he faded into silence and the two simply stood there.

Finally he pulled away from her, keeping a loose grip on her hand as he stepped back slightly and observed her face. Her eyes flickered to their fingers, knotted together loosely, before flashing back up to meet his steely gaze. He sighed quietly and pulled her back, arms throwing themselves about her shoulders as her own wound themselves around his waist. She could sense him falling apart again and pulled away, tugging on his hand and guiding him to the stairs of the tower.

"C'mon Love, you've been out here long enough."

**3. Sectum Sempra**

Dark eyes watched anxiously as Katie Bell strode into the Great Hall. She looked more dead than alive and hardly recovered, but she walked with her head high and a determination in her step that Clarissa could do nothing but admire and detest. She saw Harry rise to his feet and follow Katie to the other end of the dining area and knew with a morbid certainty what would follow.

They spoke quietly together, Katie looking upset and haunted as Harry asked her questions she obviously had no answer too. Her heart rate was slowly beginning to drop when Katie stiffened, her eyes landing on something at the entrance of the hall. Her scarred companion turned, seeing what Clarissa already knew would be there: Draco.

Harry walked off quickly, stalking out of the hall as quickly as he could, not even bothering to hide his urgency. Clary turned back to her food, shutting her eyes and feeling sick. A hand on her shoulder roused her from her stupor.

"You okay? You're looking ill."

The silvery blond curls of her friend Annabelle were the first things she saw when her eyes flickered open. Around her, her friends watched her worriedly and she took the chance to dismiss herself.

"I'm… feeling odd. Excuse me."

She rose; pushing away from the table with an urgency she hoped they would interpret as a rising urge to empty her stomach and ran off, clutching her stomach to maintain her act.

Her feet carried her to the only place she felt sure she would find Draco; an upstairs lavatory that normally went months without seeing a single soul. She knew for a fact that not even Moaning Myrtle ventured to the old bathroom, having deemed it "nasty". Halfway down the corridor, Clary could already hear the water.

She saw Harry run out of the bathroom, pale and stricken looking, and picked up her pace. Eye wide, she burst into the lavatory and stopped dead. The sinks across from the door had been blown to pieces, water sprayed from their pipes like sprinklers. The whole room was flooded, the center spanned by a puddle already nearly ankle deep.

Draco was sprawled in the deepest part of the puddle, blood spreading like a flower from multiple lacerations on his chest and arms. He was whining, pitiful noises rising from his throat like an injured animal. Professor Snape was hovering over him, tracing the lines of scarlet on his torso with his wand and muttering under his breath. As she watched the flowers of blood blooming in the water around him began to recede, drawing back into him.

Clary took a few hesitant steps into the water then rushed quickly to where the two men were. She dropped to her knees beside Draco's head, sending up a small shower of droplets and drawing the injured boy's attention.

"…Clary?"

She shushed him gently, pulling his head gingerly into her already soaked lap. With careful, shaking fingers she pushed his silvery hair from his forehead and smoothed her hand over his face, brushing gently against his cheeks and forehead. His eyes fluttered open, staring up at her dazedly as he winced against the pain.

"What're you - ?"

"Just hush. You're okay now. Rest, I'll be there when you wake."

He struggled for a moment, wincing as his brows furrowed in a half-hearted attempt at a scowl. She smiled slightly at that; the resurfacing of his old self. Beside them Snape rose to his feet, splashing away into the hall. Clary had no doubt Mme. Pomfrey would be there soon. Draco's eyes followed the professor out before flickering back to her face. The tension eased from his features as he allowed his façade to slip.

"Please, for me?" She whispered.

"Only for you."

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So? Good? Bad? Review please! Any constructive criticism is welcome :)


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